Spreading the gospel of health

“Learn to master technology, not be at the mercy of it,” said media maven Arianna Huffington, the keynote speaker at the Mount Sinai’s Women’s Health Day of Learning and Luncheon.

Arianna Huffington calls herself a “sleep evangelist.”

At least since 2007, when she worked herself so hard that she fainted from exhaustion and slammed her head down on her office desk. She ended up in the hospital that day with a broken cheekbone and a handful of stitches – each a painful reminder that sacrificing sleep for work doesn’t always end well.

“Don’t sleep with the phone nearby,” she warned guests during her keynote speech at a Mount Sinai women’s health fundraiser this past Thurs., Nov. 14th.

Cell phones and other electronic devices have been scientifically proven to disrupt sleep patterns, said the Chair, President and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post Media Group.

“If you get up in the middle of the night, you will be tempted to check your data. Learn to master technology, not be at the mercy of it.”

“It was very, very informative,” said Captain Ebony Peterman.

Over the past few years, Huffington has funneled renewed interest in health and wellness through The Huffington Post, the media company she launched in 2005. She introduced a sleep section on the popular site and made “nap rooms” and meditation classes a part of the company’s office culture.

Huffington’s sleep sermon capped a morning of health education seminars at The Plaza Hotel, all presented by physicians and researchers from Mount Sinai Hospital.

Doctors, nurses, and donors filled the majority of seats in the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom, but twenty servicewomen and veterans were also in attendance.

Captain Ebony Peterman, who found out about the event from the public affairs officer at her Fort Hamilton base, sat in on a “Guts and Good Health” panel led by two doctors and a dietician.

“It was very, very informative,” she said. “They gave us a lot of precursors to look for for and how these [cancer rates] are increasing in women. And, especially, myself, being a woman of color. They’re increasing in African American women also.”

Twenty servicewomen and veterans were in attendance.

Staff Sergeant Cassandra King, who attended the same panel, said she appreciated learning more about prevention through nutrition.

“I got some tips on supplement use, so that helped me,” said Sgt. King, whose habits of regular exercise and healthy eating already reduce her chances of getting cancer.

“I think it was a wonderful success,” said Dr. Barbara Murphy, chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and one of the event’s organizers.

“Normally we have a fashion show, but we really wanted to shift today to being really about knowledge and about taking care of your health, and I think that was really well received today.”

Huffington’s keynote speech not only stressed the importance of sleep but also the range of every-day habits, like King’s, which prevent many of the world’s chronic diseases.

Looking forward, Huffington said she wanted to use her media platform to increase the conversation about women’s health. She said she thinks the mass media in general has been improving its coverage of women’s health issues over the years, but that more words should go towards preventative health.

“In the past, the emphasis has been more on acute diseases,” she told The Manhattan Times after the luncheon. “I think we need to find ourselves talking about how to defend ourselves from getting these acute diseases.”

Mount Sinai has scheduled to open its new Women’s Health Center in 2015.